Windows Phone 7.8 could be hitting devices before Christmas, if the recent round of gossip is to be believed. With Windows Phone 8 now launched on a new run of flagship devices, it's now the turn of legacy Windows Phones to get updated. Microsoft had always said that Windows Phone 7.8 release would happen once the Windows Phone 8 launch was completed. Although no timescale has been announced, it had been expected to be in early-2013. However, information coming out of a Nokia Asia-Pacific developer event in Singapore suggests that attendees where told that Windows Phone 7.8 RTMd (release to market) this week, meaning the updated software is ready to roll, with a timescale of "days to weeks" expected.The information is attributed to "head of Nokia Asia Pacific Developer" so it's not clear exactly who passed on the information and we remain slightly sceptical. Windows Phone 7.8 is the stop-gap bringing new features to existing Windows Phones, like the Nokia Lumia 800, as Microsoft decided to not to support existing devices when it launched its new software.

But there's more Windows Phone 7.8 news too. This time coming from Nokia Germany where a leaked slide suggests that there's another increment beyond WP7.8.It's simply given as 7.x, suggesting that a name hasn't been decided, although one would surmise that 7.9 is the only real numeric option available.Whether this is confirmation of life beyond 7.8 remains to be seen, but one thing is sure: Nokia seems to be making a noise about Windows Phone 7.8 now, so we can expect to see some action on old handsets soon. Take both pieces of information with a pinch of salt however, as there's nothing official to report right now.

I think any update after 7.8 might be from nokia itself and have nothing much to do with MS. Hell I bet MS is already well into 8.1 work. The core WP team anyways, with a smaller group doing 7.8 on the side.

Rumours are it is the RTM build, which means it should now be in the process of OEMs getting it ready for their devices, and hopefully released fairly shortly (depending on if the OEM pulls their finger out of course). Thought that would be fairly self explanatory?

Rumours are it is the RTM build, which means it should now be in the process of OEMs getting it ready for their devices, and hopefully released fairly shortly (depending on if the OEM pulls their finger out of course). Thought that would be fairly self explanatory?

Ah...no from the post it wasn't self explanatory.

I was trying to figure out the connection between a non-WP device and RTM for WP7.8